Co-Founder/CFO at Seeqnce Alice, Yuelin’s journey started in medicine, moved into finance and is now in tech. As if this wasn’t diverse enough, she’s also a qualified masseur and acupuncturist, and has been practicing art and calligraphy from the age of 3. She tweets: @YuelinXWhat’s been the most successful moment of your career so far?

We recently partnered with Mobile World Capital to bring startups from the Arab World to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Bringing 14 startups from the region was cool, but even better opening a window for them onto the opportunities and partners in Europe, and vice versa for European startups and investors on the Arab World. People were (pleasantly) surprised that 4/8 people on the 2 panels talking about Tech in the Arab World were female - I was just really proud!What is your standout skill?I thought it would financial modelling but it's actually listening. Back in my medicine days we use to spend a lot of time actively and patiently listening to patients & their family, and this has continued to be my 'standout skill'. Lots of people think being a founder is about selling all day, and it is, but selling in a world where customers have much better information, selling is much more about working out with your customers what the best solution is. And you can't find a solution without knowing the problem, you can't pinpoint the problem if you don't listen. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?Ideally alice. would continue to grow and enable communities across Europe and other emerging startup markets and make their communications much more efficient. Bearing in mind 90% of startups fail, if not alice, then I'd still like to work in fast-growing tech companies at their early stages, and help build sustainable companies which build great products and are a good place to work for all employees.

by Ivana McConnell, of the CF:G Edinburgh teaching team. Find her original article here. Following the Code and Create weeking in Edinburgh, CF:G had a feature in the Financial Times.

"Until recently, I had thought that course-teaching was for the seasoned veterans of the web world, those who knew HTML, CSS, and Javascript like tying their shoes, for whom Powerpoint and networking over coffee and sandwiches comes easily (without worrying about how many sandwiches is too many given the number of students and the number of food items on offer). I am not one of these people. I worry about sandwiches, handshakes, and other such mundane things. Unsurprisingly, then, I had thought that I was not cut out to teach a course. Perfectly happy in my design and development corner, I didn’t feel like I could be a poster child for tech as the cool new thing, standing before a group of students with their eyebrows raised, expecting to be taught the virtues of a career in code.That was, of course, until I was actually asked to teach a class. I was on my way out of the office for lunch a few months ago when I was approached by one of the organisers of a Code First: Girls event about teaching some young women about the basics of coding. It was far enough away for me to think it harmless (or to think I could read a Wikipedia article/several motivational blog posts about how to teach), so I agreed. And I wouldn’t be teaching it alone, they said; much to my delight, I would be with one of these seasoned course-teaching veterans, Alan Gardner.On the whole, I was terrified of teaching, mostly because I have the perpetual feeling that I’m not actually very good at what I do. Rationally, I understand that I must be, but I can’t get away from the belief that I’ve somehow tricked everyone around me. A course would surely expose that lack of understanding.This fear was only exacerbated when I first sat down to write the materials. We agreed that Alan would teach the HTML and I would follow immediately with CSS. I had no idea where to begin, as what I thought were the most basic of concepts were like nesting dolls; there was more and more inside of them, all of which needed explained. It was instructive for me personally to keep trying various methods to find a good starting point from which to teach the basics, and which order to teach them in. Code is a non-linear thing, and trying to wrangle it into a linear, structured format can often be frustrating.The trouble with web development in general is that there are so many different ways to approach a problem that there is simply no time to teach them all. The act of choosing one method to teach over a multitude of others caused no shortage of headaches and fear, but eventually I had something I was happy with. It was a humbling process, and I realised that I didn’t have to teach them the right way, but simply the way that made the most sense to me.The course itself, we decided, would have a loose general structure that we could adapt along the way, depending on how good (or how terrified) our students were. We would do a very short introduction to our topic and immediately throw the students into the deep end with an exercise. This was because we know as developers that it’s not at all helpful to have someone talking about code you haven’t yet seen. Slides go past, but the syntax is unclear, and the student has no idea where to look. For this reason, they did an exercise first, usually for about thirty to sixty minutes, to get a handle on the basic principles of HTML, CSS, or Javascript. It was only afterwards that Alan and I talked about the subject with a little more depth, once they had a context for it.We used pre-made materials from Dash and Codecademy; the rationale behind this was that we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. The materials were already on the internet, far better than anything we could make given the constraints, and it made no sense to spend time creating a coding environment when there were already some excellent ones out there. This also touched on the point that there are so many good resources out there on the web; you just have to know how to look and, when you have a question, who or where to ask for help. We thought it would be more useful to be the help, to guide students through the myriad of materials and resources available, rather than redundantly adding to those materials.In teaching CSS, I enjoyed distilling it down to its very basics, extolling the virtues of external stylesheets and demonising inline styles. However, it showed me just how many assumptions I’d made when I saw the girls trying to negotiate their very first external stylesheet. For example, I had forgotten to tell them that they didn’t need the <style> tag in an external CSS file. This had been so simple that I had taken it for granted, and forgotten to point it out as a result (something which I immediately rectified). It was great for me to see the thought process and expectations of someone completely new to the languages that I’d been working with for over half my life. And these languages are fickle; it was difficult sometimes to tell a student that their expectations were correct, but that the language or browser simply didn’t work that way. Semicolons and syntax were a continual source of frustration, but that is why short lectures and external exercises were so helpful, because it meant that Alan and I could walk around and help them with these small errors and reinforce the basics, so that they didn’t get too disheartened too quickly.I also had to continually remind myself to slow down, especially if I was writing code myself. I had to remember that they don’t know the salient points of what I am trying to show them; they’re trying to take it all in. They cannot distinguish between personal preference in coding, unwritten etiquette, and hard-and-fast syntax rules. The shortcuts that I have become so used to, the likes of Coda and Emmet and multiple selections in SublimeText— all of this went out the window, but it was useful for me to see just now engrained those little personal preferences are to my workflow, and how demanding it is to step out of them so as not to overload the people I’m teaching.Despite my best efforts, that overload came quickly. Once I began to teach the more complicated aspects of the course, Bootstrap in particular, I realised how unwieldy the web’s simplest principles can be. I also realised just how lucky we’d gotten with the students we had, and how big a part their demeanour and attitude plays when it comes to teaching code, or anything at all.We like to think of the coding world as having a very low barrier to entry. Whoever has the attitude and the desire to learn is welcomed. In general, this is true, and there is an incredible wealth of materials available online for those who want to learn at their own pace. However, the sheer scale of this material proves a double-edged sword almost immediately, and the freedom of the profession is quickly turned against us. When someone is first learning something novel, whatever that something may be, they almost always require structure. They need to learn basics, sets of rules and heuristics on which they can build the rest of their knowledge. Coding doesn’t always lend itself well to this; there are so many quirks, so many personal preferences and so many materials that it can be hard to choose one thing to learn from. There are so many different websites, bloggers, and startups trying to teach coding in different ways that the simple act of choosing one can be overwhelming. Searching for a solution on StackOverflow can be horrifying on its own; a solution that is lauded in one place is vilified in another, and a beginner has no idea why. They don’t yet know how to apply these solutions to their code, and the strong opinions within the development community occasionally scare these people out of asking a question.There is also the curious idea that the very things which should be making web development easier for beginners— things like Bootstrap (or whatever jQuery plugin is the fashion this week)— are only usable by those who are already in the industry. For example, Bootstrap should make it easy to create a simple, responsive website for those of all abilities. However, it has gotten more and more complex in its versions, adding quite a few different components and classes that make it very unwieldy to teach and use, especially to someone who has just learned the nature of CSS classes recently.Don’t get me wrong; I think the web development world is a better place for having these frameworks, but there is nothing more unfortunate than presenting a beginner, the very person who will gain the most satisfaction from a quick Bootstrap mockup, with its documentation page. Imagine a beginner reading this sentence: “To ensure proper rendering and touch zooming, add the viewport meta tag to your <head>.” It isn’t clear from this that the line of code that follows is absolutely integral to the site’s rendering on phones, and that it must be added. The grid system is confusing at the best of times, with its different classes depending on screen size. As a result, the learning curve is far steeper than intended, and the simple act of creating one’s first grid is an inordinately difficult thing to teach and learn. It shouldn’t be.This isn’t a personal vendetta against Bootstrap, but a general point about web development for beginners. It is ironic that the tools which make our lives easier are only accessible when we don’t really need them. I can very much understand the value of all of this documentation, but the observation did strike me that it’s perhaps not as beginner-friendly as it can and should be. There is something to be said for learning the ins and outs of responsive design, for coding a responsive site by hand to get to grips with its functionality, but this should not be a prerequisite. I believe that not everyone should have to learn raw Javascript inside and out to know how to use a jQuery plugin just to display a simple animation on their web page, and not everyone should have to know CSS inside and out before using Bootstrap (or any responsive framework, for that matter).In spite of all this, however, the students dug in brilliantly, tried their best using an example I gave them and after a few hours, had truly grasped the basics of responsive design and made their own small websites. They asked questions, engaged with the code, and were unafraid to say when the documentation or my material wasn’t what they expected.At the risk of sounding a bit ridiculous, it was all very self-affirming. I had thought myself woefully unqualified, but each time there was a question asked that I could answer, I understood that my knowledge was perhaps better than I’d given myself credit for. And at the same time, when I didn’t know the answer, it was easy (and perhaps even more helpful) to work through the process with them, to show them where I would look and which terms I would search in order to find a solution to that particular problem. It was integral to me that they understood that they didn’t have to know everything; nobody does. There is that stereotype that somehow still persists about the lonely programmer, sitting at his (and it’s always a man) desk on his own. He wears glasses, eats pot noodles, has a degree in Computer Science or mathematics, and is far smarter than you. It was important to me to break down this stereotype and show them that the web is filled with problems and their solutions; if you are sitting there slaving away on your own trying to reinvent the wheel, not bothering to engage with the community, then you’re doing web development wrong. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness.It is that tenacity and that desire to improve which is the most important, either in teaching or in learning. Given enough time, I can teach someone anything, be it programming or sport or mathematics. I can’t teach them to have that drive and passion, and that terrier-like tendency of a great developer to grab a problem and never let it go, despite its best efforts to squirrel away and get the better of them. Not everyone has that and that’s okay, but these students did. They had a drive to learn that made my job as a first-time teacher very easy. They wanted to be there. That’s more than half the battle: having students in the classroom who actually want to learn, and believe that they can.By the end of the weekend, I felt I had learned just as much as the students, if not more. I had been able to engage with them, teach them a few things, and offer them some support for the future. It was that support, direction, and mutual fear (that is, the feeling that someone else is or has been just as afraid as you are, and has pulled through) that had been so difficult for me to find when I was just starting out, and that I feel is integral to the beginning of a career in code. It was incredibly fulfilling, and something that I hope to do again in the near future. In the future, I will be much more open to teaching, and I would recommend it even more to those who feel they don’t know enough. Teaching our passion very quickly affirms what we do know, and shows us what to learn next.Of course, there are still a few things that haven’t changed. I still worried about how many sandwiches were too many, what my cake choice said about me, and I forgot a few names. I said a few nonsensical things and perhaps I cursed a little too much, but I think we taught the girls something really useful and maybe broke down a few stereotypes, not just about women in tech but men as well. They came away with a responsive, individual website, and I can only hope that we inspired them to create more. It definitely inspired me to continue teaching, and learning in turn."

As International Marketing Co-ordinator at BlaBlaCar, Isabel is interacting with teams from seven European capitals on a daily basis, putting the five languages she speaks to good use. Isabel’s love for tech grew from working with the Entrepreneur First team in their early stages. You can follow her on twitter: @IsaBescosWhat’s been the most successful moment in your career?

The most successful moment of my career has been to co-set the growth strategy for BlaBlaCar's first two Qs with my team this year and meeting all the targets so far. BlaBlaCar is currently present within 12 countries (anything from the UK over to Russia) and is growing rapidly in all of them. Growing fast and efficiently is a constant challenge, and it is an incredibly empowering feeling to view a company as disruptive as BlaBlaCar overcome market challenges in all of these European countries. What is your stand out skill?

The reason I am doing my current job is that I am half Spanish, half Austrian, raised in Brussels and currently living in the UK. This means that I am confident and happy to interact with the seven BlaBlaCar teams working from Europe's major capitals.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?Still working in tech, having a more technical background as a growth hacker. I will hopefully be leading my own company, putting forward a very disruptive product.

In this blog post, we are looking at Rita Bourmo, User Experience Designer at Net-a-porter, who set out to never settle for a job that didn’t make her want to wake up in the mornings. She tweets;@RitaBourmaCan you briefly describe your journey into tech?

Initially I started taking coding lessons at the age of 10. For a few years that was. I then got into uni and studied Applied Informatics in University of Macedonia. Did my masters on Human Computer Interaction in UCL and then started working as a UX Designer for Net-a-porter.com.

What advice would you give to your 18 year old self?Go with the flow. Don't give up and never settle for a job or profession that doesn't make you wake up in the morning. Always find something that you at least enjoy. It is going to take up to ten hours of your day for many many years. Never be afraid to change track if what you are doing doesn't make you happy anymore.

What does being on this list mean to you?I would be glad if I could persuade young women get involved with Technology. We need more of them

Jenna Brown is our next CF:G Ones to Watch 2014 profile, and is currently a Sales Analyst at Adzuna, where she is known for her sweet tooth, can-do attitude and outstanding ability to intuitively understand. Find her on twitter: @xiaojennaCan you briefly describe your journey into tech?After graduation, I embarked on a Graduate Scheme at RWE Supply & Trading – a commodities trading company. The job was both challenging and interesting, but I was keen to find something I felt truly passionate about. After deciding I wanted to have a career where I could make a real difference, I set my sights on the world of start-ups. After some fairly intensive research on the top up-and-coming businesses in the UK, I sent a speculative application to Adzuna and was called in for an interview. Adzuna has an incredibly strong vision and great leadership, with a whole lot of passion for making a difference to the job search industry. So, after the initial offer, I couldn't wait to make the leap and start making my mark.Tell us a little bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis.My role at Adzuna is mixed – I spend about 50% of my time on account management and sales – making sure our customers are happy and signing up new relationships with the job board community. The other 50% tends to be spread between data analysis, operations with a touch of finance thrown in. Typically, my data work involves gathering data and insights for our monthly Jobs Market Report – although it could also incorporate more adhoc analysis such as analysing our email user base to help us perfect our user communication strategy. The operational side of my role includes making sure information passes from one part of the business to another or creating efficiency gains for a process – which may mean building a VBA tool. As with many start-up roles there is always something that I can get involved in that may not be part of my core role, and there are plenty of exciting projects on the go at any given time.Who has been your biggest inspiration?There is no one person – however there are many people who have inspired me and helped me learn and improve – family, friends, colleagues, managers - and I am grateful to them all.

Our next CF:G Ones to Watch 2014 profile focuses on Jess Ratcliffe, who left Uni after her first year to work on her company; GaBoom.

Her special skills lie in product management and game design, and she is described as “awesome at understanding what consumers want” - turning difficult technical concepts into magical gaming experiences. She turned down a job offer from Peter Jones on Dragon Den, and was a Product Manager at Mind Candy until recently, but is now taking time out to find out her next challenge.

Jess is on twitter: @jessratcliffeWhat does being on this list mean to you?It's a great honour to be on this list and be recognised for my journey so far.Where do you see yourself in 25 years time?I want to achieve a lot in the next 25 years but I try not to think that far ahead.Why should more girls get into tech?Working in tech is fascinating and always evolving. There is so much that you can do and so many great startups that you can get involved with.What’s the best piece of advice you could give to your younger self?Follow your gut instinct and say yes - you'll figure it out afterwards.

In our third CF:G Ones to Watch 2014 profile, we hear from Maxim Craner, iOS Developer at Swiftkey﻿; check out Swiftkey’s blog for an indepth post on her career path.You can find Maxim on twitter: @mennenia.﻿Can you briefly describe your journey into tech?﻿I was five when my family brought home a computer. Immediately, I could not be parted with it. Soon, I was the one maintaining the machine and by 11 I was on the internet, coding and designing websites. Throughout high school I didn’t meet anyone else around me who cared about any of this, but my interest in Computing was so strong, I had to learn more. Who has been your biggest inspiration?My mum. Having quit work to raise me and my brother when we were younger, she didn't hesitate to start her own business when I was 11. Nothing seems impossible to her and her fearless attitude towards life is my biggest inspiration. What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?By far the moment I decided to quit an unfulfilling job to teach myself iOS development. With no safety net, it was daunting at the time but led to truly fantastic experiences. I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't gone for it. What advice would you give to your 18 year old self?Nothing is like you'll expect it to be, and that's ok. Go with it. You'll be continuously surprised by what life will throw at you, but that's a good thing. If something isn't working for you, don't do it and move on.